SOUTH BEND — The Morning Star Cafe, the small eatery in the St. Joseph County Public Library’s Centre Township Branch, will close by July 31.

Food and beverages will continue to be available at the branch from vending machines.

The county library board this week agreed to renew the cafe license agreement with Morning Star Ranch & Retreat, owned by Sue Walsh, but only through July.

Library administrators cited low sales as the reason.

"We’ve tried this with three different vendors over (seven) years and it just hasn’t worked," library director Donald Napoli said. The library receives 1 percent of profits.

Walsh’s daughter-in-law, Lisa Walsh, runs the cafe. "She likes it. It’s a fun thing to do. We don’t make much money on it," Sue Walsh said.

Sue Walsh said it won’t impact her business financially to close the cafe, but she’ll be sorry to see it go.

"I like it because I think it draws in young people (to the library)," she said, noting teens and college students are among the cafe’s regular patrons.

The Centre cafe opened in January 2001, shortly after the branch opened. It’s the only cafe in the county library system, although several other branches offer coffee and snacks from vending machines.

Cafes have popped up in public libraries across the country. The trend was prompted by the popularity of coffee bars in retail bookstores.

Walsh previously operated a cafe at the Harris Branch of the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library in Granger but decided not to seek a renewal after the first year. She said there wasn’t enough foot traffic at the Harris Branch to sustain it.

Martha Eck, owner of Silver Plate Design, now operates the Book Nook, the cafe in the Harris Branch. She’s been there since July, the third food vendor at that site.

Business picked up in the fall, but has been slow since Thanksgiving, Eck said. She’s confident business will increase as news spreads about the cafe. "Coffee and books just seem to go together," she said.

The Book Nook is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The cafe offers full meals as well as beverages, baked goods and snacks. Eck also caters meals for groups meeting in the library’s community room.